Republican Debate Occurs in Florida

This Thursday, 4 republican presidential candidates entered a debate in Florida in which they talked about investments, health (specifically Ron Paul's), investing in health, and moon colonies, among other things.

The debate turned out well for everyone besides Gingrich, who had been losing the momentum gained by his South Carolina win.

I'm not going to summarize the linked article and video, but here's some additional information:

In one instance, Gingrich mentioned his belief that it is critical that the US invest in a colony on the moon. In response, Romney said "I spent 25 years in business. If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, 'You're fired.'" Though Romney and Santorum both agreed that the private sector needs to be more explored in space, Santorum agreed with Romney that it is not a good time for the government to be paying for such an endeavor. He also called the proposal an attempt to get local votes from Florida's space-related constituency, and argued that they candidates should be focused on larger issues than arguing for local votes. Ron Paul did not believe that space exploration should be government funded for anything more than possible defense opportunities.

In response to an episode where Gingrich called Romney the most "anti-immigrant" candidate, Romney responded saying that he found the charge repulsive and that such over-the top-statements have characterized politics for too long. Santorum and Romney then agreed that blocking immigrants form jobs would get them to "self-deport," while Ron Paul though a better economy would keep out illegal immigrants (Though this seems counter-intuitive), but that we should patrol the borders more anyway.

I think that, as recent GOP debates go, this debate was more legitimate than some of the other ones, likely due to the lack of less-popular candidates. I also liked the fact that the candidates were open and willing to criticize the appeals to local votes and extreme statements that have made national political debates and campaigns less... intellectual... than they should be.

Also, I particularly liked Ron Paul's defense of his health status.

It's Just Water....... boarding.....

This post is coming a bit late, but I post this due to President Obama's speech in Hawaii today. During the Republican debate on Saturday, the subject of waterboarding came up and received many different answers. It ranged from Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann calling it enhanced interrogation techniques to Ron Paul acknowledging that it is indeed torture. My stance is this, I agree with Ron Paul (for once). Waterboarding is torture period end of story. It is a way of trying to make people talk by simulating what would happen to you when you drown. Now we all know that drowning is not a pleasant feeling since it involves suffocating to death underwater. To me, when people call it an enhanced interrogation technique it sends shivers down my spine. Have we become so heartless as to force a fellow human to experience their own death via suffocation just to get information (that will probably be wrong. I highly doubt people subjected to torture are actually going to give the right information). It is wrong and inhumane. I personally can find no way to justify it. So, when I watched the Republican debate on Saturday, I was disgusted by the nominees, to an even larger extent, by the audience. Cheering for waterboarding? I just want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they don't know what waterboarding is, so that way I can go to bed thinking that they weren't actually cheering on torture. If McCain and Obama could agree that it was torture during the 2008 presidential race, then I think we should all be able to come to the same conclusion as well. Now, I find myself having to include Ron Paul in that category too, and that is something I am glad for. I may not like the man (at all) but at least he knows what is torture or what is not (although I guess it is really none of his business).

Here is an article that I got the idea from. It is incredibly short, but I felt it gave me enough to talk about. Plus, it has a video.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/13/obama-calls-waterboarding_0_n_1091711.html